Wyoming gas revenues down 74% in 'new reality'

[TexasTowelie]

As leaders scramble to prop up the state’s troubled coal industry, a “new reality” threatens from another key sector: Declining natural gas production has cut Wyoming’s annual gas tax income 74% in 12 years.

In its best performing year in the last two decades — 2006 — natural gas generated upwards of 3.5 times more mineral severance taxes for Wyoming than coal, according to calculations from state revenue forecasters’ figures. The $669.5 million in taxes that year also far outpaced mineral severance taxes generated by crude oil.

Although experts say it’s unfair to compare the coalbed-methane boom of the mid-2000s to today’s energy landscape, they are predicting a continuing decline in natural gas revenues. When coupled with the slumping coal industry, the loss of natural gas revenue is creating a “new reality,” Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander) said recently.

“When I began serving in the Legislature, we believed coal would last 200 years,” Case said in a statement as Gov. Mark Gordon announced a planning effort to better report about Wyoming’s energy future. But annual mineral severance tax revenue from coal in 2019 will be down 38% from its zenith in 2011, according to WyoFile calculations from figures provided by state revenue forecasters.

Read more: https://www.wyofile.com/wyo-gas-revenues-down-74-in-new-reality/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This result was in the

forecast some twenty plus years ago. Because you have a defined amount on day one does not mean that same amount will be there twenty years down the road. My guess it,it is even worst than what this story tells.

But,the GOP of Wyoming peddled the unicorn theory and the Voters bought it.